the united states enjoyed price stability until the 1990's and continues to do so today. the employment situation remains a grave concern. it is not growing fast enough to make significant progress reducing the unemployment rate. fewer than half of the 8 million jobs have been restored. at 8.1%, the unemployment rate is nearly unchanged since the beginning of the year. the weak job market should concern every american. high unemployment imposes large ship and entails a tremendous waste of human skills and talents. 5 million americans have been unemployed for more than six months and millions more have left the labour force. they have given up because they have not been able to find suitable work. as skills atrophy, they find it increasingly difficult to get good jobs. and also to the detriment of our nation's productive potential. they have provided unprecedented levels of policy accommodation in recent years. it with the main policy interest rate near the effect of lower bound, we have tools to carry out monetary policy, balance sheet actions, and guidance for how we ant